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Baltimore’s overdose crisis

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Members of the BRIDGES Coalition hold a demonstration in front of City Hall in Baltimore, Wednesday, July 10, 2024.
Baltimore reaches second opioid settlement with CVS on the eve of trial
The settlement brings the city’s total recoveries to $90 million.
People protested the city’s response to overdoses at City Hall in Baltimore last month.
As opioid deaths plague Baltimore, the city’s strategy is silence
Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration has opted to remain silent on the city’s response to overdose deaths as it navigates litigation with opioid makers and distributors.
Discarded Narcan nasal spray sits on Retreat Street in Baltimore on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023.
$20M to pay lawyers: Where money from Baltimore’s opioid settlement will go
Questions abound about how the money will be used to combat overdoses.
Flowers laid by Mona Setherley at the rowhome where her son, Bruce Setherley, was discovered deceased from an overdose in Baltimore on February 15, 2024.
Banner analysis: Inequality central to Baltimore’s unprecedented overdose crisis
Baltimore’s unprecedented overdose crisis has not been suffered equally. Neighborhoods with the highest overdose rates were often the same ones with the highest rates of poverty, a Banner analysis found.
Renovated, expanded Tuerk House in Baltimore aims to help assist people struggling with addiction and mental illness.
Commentary: Here are solutions for Baltimore’s overdose crisis
City leaders, health care providers and law enforcement can work together to provide treatment, prevention and other strategies to confront Baltimore’s drug overdose crisis, directors of health and public innovation efforts at Johns Hopkins University say.
Donna Bruce waves her praise flags through the newly renamed street, Devon Wellington’s Way after the ceremonial street signing, in Baltimore, June 5, 2024.
Strangers making small talk bonded over connection to overdose victim
One of the last people to see Devon Wellington alive, before he overdosed in 2021, has developed a relationship with the man’s mother. She taught him how to use Narcan, and they recently attended a street renaming event together.
Nearly 6,000 people have died from overdoses in the last six years, the worst drug crisis ever seen in a major American city. (Ryan Little/The Baltimore Banner. Original photo by Jessica Gallagher/The Baltimore Banner.)
An unprecedented epidemic: This is where people die of overdoses in Baltimore
A yearlong investigation recently published by The Baltimore Banner and The New York Times revealed an unprecedented overdose crisis gripping Baltimore.
The exterior of Baltimore City Hall.
Council will hold four hearings examining city’s response to overdoses
The Baltimore City Council will hold at least four oversight hearings examining the city’s response to its unprecedented overdose epidemic.
Lisa Filer and Jon Filer stand outside of Starlight Liquors in Baltimore, MD on July 20, 2023 where their son, Aidan Filer, passed away from a fentanyl overdose three years prior.
Letter: Something needs to be done about Baltimore’s overdose crisis immediately
Craig Lippens, president of the Maryland Addiction Directors Council, said treatment is key to addressing Baltimore’s opioid crisis but too many obstacles persist to offer more options.
William Baker, known as Al, at his apartment in Irvington Place. Wellness checks on a single day last
November turned up three tenants dead of overdoses.
A horrific number of older Black men are dying from overdoses in Baltimore
Many are dying from fentanyl and other drugs. The hardest-hit are Black men in their 50s to 70s, a group that Baltimore’s changing economy left behind.
Almost 6,000 dead in 6 years: How Baltimore became the U.S. overdose capital
The city was once hailed for its response to addiction. But as fentanyl flooded the streets and officials shifted priorities, deaths hit unprecedented heights.
Baltimore City Councilman Mark Conway listens during a hearing with members of the Baltimore City Council’s Public Safety and Government Operations Committee inside Baltimore City Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 23.
City Council to examine city’s overdose response after Banner/Times report
Councilman Mark Conway plans to introduce legislation on Monday to convene a hearing in late June.
A person in Baltimore receives Narcan, an overdose antidote.
Seniors in Baltimore are being devastated by drugs: 5 takeaways
The city has become the U.S. overdose capital, and older Black men are dying at higher rates than anyone else.
Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, then health commissioner, in her office in January 2023. She was later promoted to deputy mayor of health, equity and human services. According to a memo obtained by The Banner, she will leave City Hall in June.
Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, Baltimore’s top health official, to leave job next month
Deputy chief of staff J.D. Merrill will serve as Dzirasa’s interim replacement.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 01: In this photo illustration, A Narcan nasal overdose kit, given out free by the city of New York, is displayed as part of the Brooklyn Community Recovery Center's demonstration on how to use Narcan to revive a person in the case of a drug overdose on September 01, 2022 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Nearly one million people have died of drug overdose deaths in America in the past two decades, with an increasing majority of those deaths due to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. The Brooklyn Community Recovery Center handed out packs of Narcan nasal spray before holding a brief vigil to those lives lost due to drug overdoses.
How to get naloxone — and how to use it
Naloxone is a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose.
The synthetic opioid fentanyl, up to 50 times more potent than heroin, has taken over Baltimore’s illegal drug supply, contributing to more and more deaths.
Baltimore’s unprecedented overdose crisis: 5 takeaways
Nearly 6,000 people have died over the past six years — an unparalleled number among U.S. cities.
Cassidy Fredrick, 6, sits on the headstone of her father, Devon Wellington, at Woodlawn Cemetery in Baltimore, MD on April 7, 2024.
‘I love you in the sky, daddy’: Stories from Baltimore’s overdose crisis
Unprecedented overdose rates from fentanyl and other drugs have left signs of loss across the city.
Doni Smith sits at the grave of her fiancé, Jaylon Ferguson, with their children Jrea and Jyce Ferguson at St. Paul No. 1 Cemetery in St. Francisville, Louisiana, on June 21, 2023. Smith crafted items to leave at Ferguson's grave on the one-year anniversary of his passing.
Jaylon Ferguson made it from Louisiana to the Ravens. An overdose cut his legacy short.
The same drug that Jackie Ferguson had used to ease her mother’s pain had also taken her son Jaylon’s life.
Buprenorphine and naloxone sublingual films can help treat opioid use disorder.
Share your experience with drug addiction treatment programs, recovery homes in Maryland
Help us cover the response to Baltimore’s overdose crisis by sharing your experience.

About this project

The reporters examined Baltimore’s response to rising overdose deaths as part of The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship.

Reporting by Alissa Zhu, Nick Thieme and Jessica Gallagher. Additional reporting by Cadence Quaranta, Emily Sullivan and Adam Willis, and Cheryl Phillips and Eric Sagara of Big Local News. Additional research by Susan C. Beachy and Kirsten Noyes.

Photography by Jessica Gallagher. Design and web production for The Baltimore Banner by Ryan Little, Emma Patti Harris and Zuri Berry. Audience, social and reader engagement by T.J. Ortenzi, Stokely Baksh and Krishna Sharma. Video and web production for The New York Times by Leo Dominguez, Rebecca Suner and Claire Hogan. Graphics by Molly Cook Escobar, Scott Reinhard and Nick Thieme.

Editing by The New York Times, Kimi Yoshino, Richard Martin, Ryan Little and Emma Patti Harris.